Most of my favourite books/movies/TV shows are Sci fi - I love Mary Shelley, slaughterhouse five, annihilation (both the book and the movie), The Thing, x files, the invasion, and the OA. This feels like a pretty wide variety of writing styles when I line them up but 90% of the sci fi I read/watch I just don’t enjoy at all. It’s a shame because when I love something sci fi I feel like it’s changed my whole life, but when it comes to finding new things I can just enjoy its easier to go through other genres. Is anyone else like this? Does anyone have reccomendations based on what I do like?

  • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝English
    15•1 year ago

    The common factor seems to be more grounded Earth-based sci-fi with a smidge of horror and perhaps some mystery, rather than space battles.

    In that case, films and TV:

    • Early Cronenberg up to eXistenZ (perhaps Crimes of the Future, if you really like that)
    • Society
    • The Faculty
    • Save the Green Planet
    • Under the Skin
    • They Live
    • The Mist
    • A Quiet Place
    • Cube series
    • Slither
    • Splice
    • Splinter
    • The Reanimator series
    • From Beyond
    • Phantasm series
    • Tetsuo
    • Cloverfield (and 10 Cloverfield Lane)
    • The Host
    • Predator series
    • The Void
    • Fringe TV series, as you liked The X-Files. I presume you have watched Millennium?
    • BrainDead (2016 TV series)
    • The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker TV series
    • Truthseekers (2020 TV series)
    • Lovecraft Country - book and series
    • Eerie Indiana
    • Ultraviolet (1998 UK TV series)
    • Tokyo Gore Police and others by the same team, like Meatball Machine and Machine Girl
    • Gantz
    • The Girl With All the Gifts - book and series
    • Timecrimes
    • Pi
    • Bad Taste
    • Grabbers
    • Body Melt
    • Wild Zero
    • Pontypool
    • The Objective
    • District 9
    • Firebase and have a look at the others they have done, especially Zygote
    • Love, Death and Robots
    • Matango
    • Xtro
    • John Dies at the End - read the books first
    • Frankenstein’s Army
    • Overlord
    • Quatermass and the Pit, as well as other Quatermass films and series
    • The Deadly Spawn
    • The Man With X-ray Eyes
    • Village of the Damned (1960)
    • The Illustrated Man (1969)
    • Take Shelter

    And one with spaceships in it: Starship Troopers

    • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝English
      8•1 year ago

      That goes a little too hard into horror, so also try:

      • The Truman Show
      • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
      • Looper
      • Source Code
      • Minority Report
      • 12 Monkeys
      • Donnie Darko
      • Vanilla Sky
      • Dark City
      • Being John Malkovich

      Although they are all pretty obvious. Might have to ponder this more.

      edit: also:

      • The Arrival (1996) - instead of Arrival that I’ll assume you’ve seen
      • Resident Alien - TV series and comics
      • How to Talk to Girls at Parties
      • Rupture (2016)
      • The Watch (2012)
      • Alien Raiders (2008)
      • Threshold (2005 TV series)
      • Invasion (2005 TV series)
      • The Forgotten (2004)
      • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘English
        3•1 year ago

        This is a great list!

        12 monkeys is also a series. It’s not as good as the movie, but still amazing.

        Edit: more into the light scifi genre, Jennifer Government

    • Usernameblankface
      3•1 year ago

      Adding to this, Devolution by Max Brooks. Book only

      I also like earth based hard sci-fi with some mystery and horror. This book hits all three points, and is very character driven on top of that.